While today may be full of changes and the Rangers and Devils may be a part of that, when they square off tonight at Madison Square Garden (7:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN) it’ll be just like nothing ever changed as a rivalry gets recharged.

The Devils head into tonight’s game with a 2-1-0 record against the Rangers this season, but trail the East leaders by 10 points. The Devils have been cruising of late thanks to the stellar play of Ilya Kovalchuk. Kovalchuk has been putting in a Herculean, almost MVP-like effort this season as he’s evolved his game from being straight offense into being a very well-rounded game. Hey, whoever thought you’d see Kovalchuk killing penalties?

Kovalchuk along with Zach Parise gives New Jersey a dynamic one-two punch. Add in stellar rookie Adam Henrique and surprise 20-goal scorer David Clarkson and you’ve got a Devils team that isn’t like the Devils you got to know in the past. These Devils get it done by scoring goals. With Martin Brodeur and Johan Hedberg, New Jersey has the oldest goalie tandem in the league but they’ve got all the veteran wiles to continue being frustrating to deal with.

The Rangers, meanwhile, just keep on keeping on. They’re coming off a stirring overtime win against Buffalo on Saturday that saw Ryan Callahan continue to build his legend in New York City scoring the game-winner. Callahan along with Marian Gaborik and Brad Richards gives the Rangers a multi-talented trio of guys that can beat you offensively. Toss in a little bit of Derek Stepan up front and Michael Del Zotto on the blue line and you’ve got a lot of problems to deal with.

The one place where the Rangers have the Devils beaten is in goal. I know, it sounds blasphemous to put down Martin Brodeur but with the way Henrik Lundqvist has played this year, King Henrik is the toast of the town now. Lundqvist is near the top of all the goalie stat categories and on nights where New York’s offense slumps, Lundqvist locks it down to make sure the Rangers can win one-goal games.

One guy you can probably count on not seeing in tonight’s game is Rick Nash as the Rangers are reportedly out of the running for the Blue Jackets winger. Anything can happen on deadline day which means we could see sudden changes before these teams drop the puck tonight.

New York Islanders forward Josh Ho-Sang provided an interesting take to Newsday’s Arthur Staple, and also reminded observes that, as an international sport, the NHL features some players who might not feel as invested in (or at least as informed about) these debates.

“I think what the NFL players are doing is amazing. It’s good that they’re all sticking together,” Ho-Sang said on Monday. “I mean, I’m Canadian, so I don’t have too much input on the matter itself. It will affect me living in the States, but the biggest thing is it’s unfortunate that the message may have gotten lost a little. Now it’s becoming a battle between the NFL and the president and originally [the protests] started because of police brutality and the mistreatment of different races.”

“Protecting the First Amendment is a huge thing,” Okposo said. “I’m a proud American, and I’m proud to be from the United States. Myself personally, I wouldn’t kneel for an anthem, but I respect those that do.”

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This isn’t the first time we’ve seen the current political climate affect NHL players or people they know.

Players in plenty of sports are navigating tough questions this week. It’s important to remember that athletes can find themselves in tough spots when addressing topics that can be polarizing and/or complex.

Can't imagine being 20 years old, talking to a pack of reporters about controversial protests, knowing that any misstep releases the hounds.

With the regular season about to kick into gear on Oct. 4, it’s certain that there will be more eyes on anthems than ever before. The insights in this post should be useful, whether NHL players kneel, sit, speak, or decide to stick to hockey.

The key: after only being able to study brains of deceased athletes, there’s a chance that living athletes with CTE might eventually be identified.

On face value, that’s great news for player health. Hockey, like other contact sports such as football, is no stranger to careers and lives being derailed by brain injuries.

Of course, the NHL and NHLPA would need to cooperate to make the most of potential progress. If you’ve watched hockey long enough, particularly postseason hockey, you know that certain protocols can stand as great concepts met with hesitant execution.

Westhead expounds on such thoughts, and some of his findings aren’t very pretty.

Players might be hesitant to take such tests if it means that they’ll miss playing time (or even see their careers end). It brings back memories of Peyton Manning willfully sandbagging his baseline concussion test. For better or worse, these guys want to play.

NHL player agent: “If I asked 30 of my players if they would take a test to tell them if they have CTE, I think zero would be interested."

Of course, it’s crucial to realize that potential breakthroughs from this study could take quite some time to trickle into functional practices, even if leagues and players end up being more willing to comply than expected.

Overall, this is promising news. Hopefully such changes could help athletes during their careers and into retirement.

Sprong, 20, was the 46th pick of the 2015 NHL Draft. He’s been generating solid numbers at the OHL, so it will be interesting to see how he converts that to AHL work. Sprong played 18 regular-season games for the Penguins back in 2015-16, notching two goals.

There are some bullet points that can sell Nolan, but the 28-year-old’s production was quite limited at the NHL level. Nolan’s never scored 10 goals in a single season; in fact, he’s only reached 10 points once in his career (six goals and four assists in 64 regular-season contests back in 2013-14).

Overall, it wouldn’t be surprising if a team targeted Nolan as a depth guy, even if his ceiling is limited.

While the Penguins’ entries seem notable for sheer volume as much as anything else, Frank Corrado is another name that stands out.

Corrado was often the catalyst for debates about his playing time (or lack thereof) with the Toronto Maple Leafs, but it doesn’t seem like the defenseman is having much success catching on with the Penguins, either.

Zatkoff, meanwhile, fits in with quite a few other names on this list: possibly prominent in the AHL, only likely to get the occasional cup of coffee in the NHL, at this point.